


official

by towokuwusatsuwu



Category: HiGH&LOW: the Story of S.W.O.R.D. (TV)
Genre: Dirty Talk, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Oral Sex, Polyamory, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-04
Updated: 2018-08-04
Packaged: 2019-06-21 17:59:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15563340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/towokuwusatsuwu/pseuds/towokuwusatsuwu
Summary: pearl has had a thing for bernie for long enough when bernie unexpectedly takes a chance pearl never saw him taking. it suits them just the same.





	official

**Author's Note:**

> a quick happy birthday to the lovely alan shirahama of generations aka bernie's beautiful actor! here's to 25 years of his sweet face and adorable smile and perfect acting/dancing skills and to another 25 more at least!

“Can I be honest with you?”

The question has Pearl lifting his head from the arm of the couch, eyelids only half-opened, a noise of protest leaving his lips as he meets Bernie’s eyes. Today is a quiet day as far as the Mighty Warriors go. Ice had taken Ryu out somewhere so they could have alone time and Bernie finally came downstairs to spend some quality time with Pearl, lugging one of his three laptops so he could do some small work while they watched movies. Before the first movie was complete, Pearl had given up on following it, content to nap with it as background noise instead.

He blinks his eyes a few times, wiping the sleep out of them as he forces himself up into a sitting position. Bernie stares at him, the screen of his laptop illuminating his face, throwing his features into sharp relief in a way that isn’t wholly unattractive. Mostly, the light illuminates Bernie’s eyes, hard and dark as they stare at Pearl. It makes him feel slightly turned on.

“What is it, Bern?” he asks, half-yawning the words.

Bernie sets the laptop aside and Pearl wings up his eyebrows. For their resident tech fiend to give someone his undivided attention in the middle of work, the matter must be serious.

“I’m really into you,” Bernie says, rushing onward when Pearl opens his mouth to respond, “like,  _ really _ into you. If you just said the words, I’d get on my knees and suck your cock right now.”

This is hardly irregular for Bernie, who has no filter on his mouth or his sex drive; Pearl blinks at him a few times just the same, thrown by how open he is. Then his mind processes the words and he hesitates, hands curling in the throw blanket over his legs. He doesn’t remember reaching for it and wonders if Bernie had covered him up without him noticing.

“Uh, Bernie…” Pearl presses his lips together. He wishes Ice and Ryu were here. He desperately wants the solidarity right now, and Ice is better with words than he is. He settles for blunt, matching Bernie’s own typical personality. “I ain’t got a dick.”

To his amusement, Bernie’s mouth falls open, his eyelids fluttering. “C-come again?”

“You wish.” Pearl smirks when Bernie’s eyes widen at him, then sighs and combs his fingers through his hair, mussed from lying on the couch for so long. “Y’know how Ice and Ryu are both trans, like, I know they both came out to you already. Jesse, too? That’s… Kinda why I fell in with them. Mighty Warriors is a safe place for dudes like me to hang out.”

Bernie blinks at him. “Dudes like… Are you trans, too? Or am I just an idiot?”

“I am, yeah.” Pearl exhales slowly, not sure why it matters to him so much. Bernie hasn’t stopped hitting on anyone else in their little inner circle, but just the same Pearl has always been at least a little nervous around him and his reactions. Bernie is openly, flamboyantly gay and always has been, hitting it off with Pearl when he first wandered into the music store Bernie used to cashier for. And sometimes, cis gay men can be bad. In Pearl’s experience, it’s a lot like playing Russian roulette with more than half of the chamber loaded. “So, like… Yeah.”

Bernie looks thoughtful, pouty lips pressed together, eyes vacant, and Pearl plays with the blanket more, not sure what to say. It isn’t like he made it any big secret but he knows Bernie can be oblivious to some things, had taken ages to pick up on the fact that Ice and Pearl refused to call Ryu a man or a woman, always speaking in vague terms even though Bernie was echoing them the entire time; he’d just never questioned what it meant.

Distantly, Pearl wonders if Bernie will rescind his offer now that he knows. He probably won’t, of course, because he knows Bernie has been all over the others when he gets half a chance, but it still nags him in the back of his mind. That Pearl isn’t what Bernie  _ wants, _ not what Bernie thought he was, and that his fantasy isn’t going to match up to reality, so he might not be interested anymore. It would be a disappointment because Pearl is  _ very _ interested.

Bernie’s an idiot at his worst, sweely dumb at his best but he works hard for all of them and his actual intelligence when it comes to computers is beyond anything Pearl can process. And Bernie spins some of the best shit Pearl has ever heard, ensuring the two of them are an excellent compliment for one another. Bernie spins and Pearl raps and they fit together like two pieces of a puzzle, not far from one another. Pearl has been shy about doing anything about his feelings for the pretty man sitting across from him, never sure what to say.

And he’s always worried, quietly, that Bernie might not want him because of who he is.

Which is  _ stupid,  _ because Ryu had told Pearl once about Bernie coming to them and asking them to teach him oral, determined to show off to Ice especially and knowing that out of all of them, Ryu is the best when it comes to instruction. So Bernie clearly cares enough to make the effort. Pearl has just been burned more times than he can count at this point.

“I don’t know how I didn’t notice,” Bernie finally says, his eyebrows knitting together, arms crossing over his chest. “I should have. I’m sorry, Pearl.”

Pearl shakes his head. “Nah, man, it’s all good. Coming out’s kinda hard, anyway, so it’s not like I could just sit down and say it even though I really should’ve been able to.”

“You don’t have to apologize for that. Coming out  _ is _ hard. Even I know that.” Bernie’s expression softens and Pearl’s heart beats a little faster. It’s like a dream come true, Bernie looking at him with such a gentle gaze. “I misspoke. I made assumptions. I shouldn’t have done that.”

“No way. It was just… Not a big deal.” It’s really not. Pearl isn’t even the least bit upset.

Bernie frowns at him. “I’ll do better next time. I won’t assume. What do you… Call it?”

“It’s just… I dunno, man, a vagina? I don’t think about the words overly much anymore.” That’s only so true, but Pearl doesn’t want to go down the long timeline of how he felt about his body. “It’s just what it is. Why you asking? You really into me like that?”

This time, Bernie snaps his laptop closed. “I’m  _ really _ into you, yeah. Like, having wet dreams and stuff. Okay, maybe that’s not nice to say out loud, but—”

“Really?” Pearl is suitably impressed in himself. “Hell, Bern, you should’ve said something.”

Bernie huffs at him. “Well, I’m saying it now. Do you like oral? I know Ryu-san said I should always ask ahead of time because not everyone here is into it all the time.”

“Yeah, I like it. More than most things, actually.” The question makes Pearl press his thighs together underneath the blanket, and maybe in the pitch black of the night when he’s trying to rub one out he’s thought about Bernie’s head between his thighs, Bernie’s mouth— But those are just fantasies. “You ain’t gotta, though, like—”

“If you just said the words,” Bernie interrupts, “I’d get on my knees and eat you out right now.”

Pearl chokes. Bernie looks at him with a burning intensity, entire body poised like he’s ready to move the minute Pearl gives him some kind of signal. The offer is all kinds of hot, making Pearl’s gut tighten at the thought that Bernie would just do this for him if he opened his mouth and asked him to. He can already imagine it, yanking Bernie’s headband off so he can run his fingers through all that dark hair, can imagine it tickling his stomach while Bernie— He needs to stop. But it’s hard not to think about it with Bernie looking at him like this.

He gulps in air, struggling to breathe properly. “You really want that?”

“Oh yeah. I’m updating my mental fantasies about this as we speak.” Bernie smirks at him, cocksure and egotistical as always, but it’s a turn-on for Pearl as stupid as that sounds. “So right now I’m thinking about how good it’ll be when your thighs crush my head.”

Pearl drags a hand down his face. “You can’t just say shit like that.”

“Maybe not, but I do anyway. If you don’t want me, just say it.” The fact Bernie can say this without sounding small or pitiful makes Pearl jealous; he  _ wishes _ he could be as uncaring as Bernie, that he could bounce back from a rejection. Especially from someone he considers his best friend. “If you just wanna stay friends, we can. But if you want me to get you off with my mouth, just say the word. I can even give you multiple orgasms if you want.”

“You can’t do that,” Pearl says in disbelief.

Bernie scoffs at him. “Ryu-san smothered me for over an hour, you think I didn’t learn? They wouldn’t have untied me from the bed until I was good at it.”

That much sounds true; Pearl knows Ryu all too well, after all. Their instruction methods tend to be full submergence, threatening to drown anyone who cannot keep up with them. The thought makes Pearl that much hotter underneath the blanket and the layers of clothing he’d put on so he could get away with not wearing his binder today. He mostly wears it to pass these days anyway; being around Ryu, so unabashed with their own body, has helped him more than he wants to think about at this moment with Bernie’s eyes staring into his soul.

God help him, but he wants everything Bernie is offering him. Bernie has beautiful brown eyes, bright and glimmering, and the thought of those eyes looking up at him from between his own legs threatens to undo him at the seams. He wants to trap Bernie’s head between his thighs, keep him in place so that Bernie can’t escape until Pearl has come, and from the sound of it, Bernie is thinking along the same lines as him. What are the odds?

They’d always completed each other. Maybe this isn’t so different.

“I want you,” Bernie says, more pronounced, stressing the words in English. “If you’re worried that I’ll look at you differently, I won’t. Ice would have killed me if I looked at him differently. So would Jesse and Ryu-san. I don’t know everything, but I’m leaning. They wouldn’t keep me around if I wasn’t doing my best for all of you.”

Pearl knows that’s the truth. “I just… You really? You really want me like that?”

“How could I not? Pearl, you’re  _ gorgeous _ and you’re funny and all your jokes suck, okay, but you make me laugh anyway. You’re like, my mother half.” Bernie smiles at him, bright white teeth and sunshine warmth and Pearl feels like he’s dying. “I’ve been a coward about telling you, but I told myself that if we’d have the house to ourselves, I’d tell you.”

Pearl suddenly wonders if Ice and Ryu wanting alone time was a coincidence after all. “I want you, too, Bernie. I have for a really long time, actually. Almost since the beginning.”

Bernie squeezes his eyes shut and exhales, his entire body shuddering. “God, that’s… I really am an idiot for not noticing that. But I’m noticing now. It’s not too late, is it?”

“Nah.” Pearl pats the couch. “Get over here, idiot.”

What he expects is what happens; Bernie ignores the empty spots on the couch in favor of pouncing on Pearl, pressing him back down onto the couch cushions, lips coming down on Pearl’s so hard and fast and sudden that it’s almost too much to process. Then Pearl does catch up to Bernie’s plush lips on his own, Bernie’s hands cradling his face, Bernie making him feel things he’d only stamped down on to keep them muffled and quiet.

Bernie is a sloppy kisser, all lips and tongue and Pearl groans up into his mouth, spreading his legs so that Bernie sinks between them and into the cushions, their pelvises crashing together but not quite at the right angle. It’s better than nothing and Pearl runs a hand through Bernie’s hair, fingers snagging his headband just to pitch it across the room.

“Oh, nice.” Bernie grins down at him, kisses him on the tip of the nose and Pearl scoffs up at him. “If I end up tickling you now, it’s your fault.”

“How am I ever gonna survive getting tickled?” Pearl asks dryly.

The snicker his words earn him is worth it, though. “All right, tell me what I’m allowed to do. If you don’t want me touching your chest, I won’t. I know you wear binders sometimes.”

“That’s mostly just for passing these days like, when we’re in public and stuff.” Pearl doesn’t know that he needs to explain that in any great detail, Bernie’s face softening in understanding. “Dunno, like, I used to not like being touched at all but Ryu’s gotten me feeling some kinda way about things lately. So like, you can touch me anywhere but if it gets to be too much, you stop.”

Bernie nods immediately. “You got it. Can I get you out of your clothes now?”

“If you don’t I’ll just fucking leave,” Pearl tells him.

He sits up so Bernie can get his hands underneath Pearl’s sweatshirt and his t-shirt, gathering all the fabric in his hands and pulling it off in one fluid motion. Though he and Bernie have been friends for years now, Pearl has avoided being shirtless around him as much as he can even sweating through some of the worst summers ever, just not ready to sit down and have the proper conversation. He’d been on T for a while before he met Bernie at his shop and it must have done enough to keep Bernie from being suspicious. Either that, or he always took Pearl at his word and never picked at where he had no right to pick.

Either way, Bernie’s a good one. Pearl can finally be sure of that now.

When he’s naked from the waist up, Pearl flops back down on the couch, arms in a loose tangle above his head. “Like what you see?” he asks, nerves fluttering in his throat.

“You know I do. You’re  _ gorgeous, _ I’m so lucky you didn’t turn me down.” Bernie grins down at him and Pearl squirms at the sweetness of the words. “You look great, Pearl. You always do, I mean that. I’m just… Really reeling right now, y’know? I half-thought you’d blow me off.”

If they’re going for honest, Pearl might as well go for broke. “I was scared you’d look at me and not wanna touch me. There’s been guys, y’know, they get my clothes off and they fuck off.”

“I can hardly keep my hands off of you.” Bernie’s face softens further, too soft and Pearl closes his eyes, not able to handle those big brown eyes looking down at him like this. “I’m sorry you went through that. It’s shitty. Ice and Jesse and Ryu-san have said similar things and it’s really awful but I’m not going to do that. You’re just another beautiful man to me.”

Pearl exhales slowly and nods, then slowly opens his eyes once more. “Thanks, Bern.”

Bernie leans down to kiss him again and Pearl wraps his arms around Bernie’s shoulders, fingers curling in the soft fabric of his shirt. Kissing Bernie is like a fantasy come to life all on its own, much less with his bare chest pressed up against Bernie’s clothed one and no sign of Bernie flinching away from him or not wanting anything to do with him. On the contrary, a hand sneaks between their bodies and Pearl moans into the kiss when Bernie’s fingers cup and  _ squeeze, _ just enough to make his body spark in interest.

“Oh that’s kinda nice actually,” Bernie muses against his mouth and Pearl bites down on his lower lip, scraping his teeth over it. “Soft, I mean. Is this okay for real?”

“Yeah.” There’s something sweetly innocent in the way Bernie speaks, something that relaxes every muscle in Pearl’s body one by one. “You can, uh, use your mouth, too.”

“Don’t need to tell me twice.” Bernie steals one last kiss, and then his head moves down.

There have been guys who wanted to touch Pearl to satisfy their own curiosity more than anything else, treating his body like it was an experiment. Bernie’s hands on him are warm and sure, his mouth kissing a hot path down the middle of Pearl’s chest before he pulls a nipple into his mouth. There’s no hesitation in his touch or intrigue in his gaze, just rich brown deepening as he looks up at Pearl, his tongue doing wicked things that no one’s tongue should be able to do. It makes Pearl wonder how Bernie’s tongue is going to feel between his legs.

Bernie licks and sucks and runs just the barest edge of his teeth over Pearl’s nipples until they’re hard and throbbing from the attention, little noises catching in Pearl’s throat. It’s a lot to process but he barely has time before Bernie’s mouth is on his stomach. He’s kept himself toned with regular workouts not just for the fighting but because it makes him feel better and look better and when Bernie moans against his skin, it only strokes his ego.

“You’re so  _ hot, _ you know that?” Bernie looks up at him, mouth wet and eyes wild and Pearl cards his fingers through Bernie’s hair, mussing it everywhere. “Can I eat you out now?”

Pearl almost chokes on his own tongue. “Yeah, B. Not gonna stop you now.”

“You could if you wanted to,” Bernie reminds him, but he pulls Pearl’s pants down just the same, taking his underwear with them. Let it never be said that Bernie beats around the bush. “Oh shit, you’re… Oh wow. I didn’t expect you to be this worked up already.”

“You’ve been dirty talking this entire time and you ain’t expecting a response? Shit, man.” Pearl laughs and then Bernie breathes over him, his breath cooler than Pearl’s overheated skin. “Oh, fuck you, don’t do that, you asshole.”

Bernie giggles up at him, hand slipping beneath Pearl’s thigh, guiding one of his legs up onto the back of the couch. “Just wanted to see how you’d react. I won’t do it again.”

“Better not,” Pearl warns. “You want me to jerk you off or something? You gotta be—”

“I just wanna do this for you first and we’ll see about that after or something. Don’t think about that right now.” Bernie wets his lips and Pearl feels a hot flush climb up the back of his neck, his thighs twitching in anticipation. “Just think about how good my tongue’s gonna feel.”

He seriously can’t talk like this— And then Bernie leans his head down and licks up Pearl’s slit, one long wet lewd stripe, his eyes locked onto Pearl’s like he can’t bear to look away. Pearl hopes he doesn’t disappoint, choking on a moan, hips jumping at the sudden sensation, the way Bernie’s tongue drags against him. He’s wet already and a little swollen and Bernie’s tongue feels just as amazing as he promised. When Pearl’s hips jump again his hands come up to hold them down and something about that is unbearably sexy.  _ Bernie _ of all people holding him down.

“Oh, that’s… I could get addicted to that.” Bernie licks his lips and Pearl wants to smack him.

“Be good for me if you did,” he teases instead, tangling his fingers in Bernie’s hair, guiding his mouth back down. “I’m saying the word right now, Bern. Go down on me.”

“Gladly.” And then Bernie’s mouth is on him in full force.

Ryu has taught him well; he laps over Pearl’s folds before pressing his tongue between them, tongue flicking against his clit hard enough that Pearl’s hand tightens in his hair, keeping him right there. Bernie can read the movement without having to ask, without having to look up, tongue alternatively lapping and flicking over Pearl’s clit in an uneven rhythm that keeps him guessing, the stimulation so direct and forceful it almost hurts in just the best way.

It’s too good to be true, the pleasure that rolls through Pearl, pleasure given to him by Bernie’s mouth on him. He’s fantasized about this so many times but reality is so much better than his exhausted and horny mind could have fabricated, Bernie’s tongue confident in every stroke and movement, his lips gliding over Pearl’s slick skin without hesitation. He sucks Pearl’s clit so hard that Pearl sees stars momentarily, his back bowing off of the couch just a little, a high-pitched little keening noise slipping past his lips.

“You taste so  _ good, _ ” Bernie says, his thumb slipping over Pearl’s clit while he comes up for air. “Can I put my tongue in you? Is that okay?”

Pearl gives Bernie’s hair an impatient pull. “You don’t have to stop and ask  _ everything. _ ”

“Yeah, I do.” Bernie grins at him and Pearl aches at the sight. “I gotta make sure I treat you right and I don’t fuck up. Ryu-san would kill me if I did anything less.”

“Yeah, yeah, you can tongue-fuck me.” Pearl’s hips give a little kick and he groans, thighs twitching. “C’mon, Bern, you’re killing me. I just wanna feel your mouth—”

He doesn’t get to finish the sentence, Bernie’s nose bumping against his clit just a little when he licks inside of Pearl in one long, wet lick. It’s enough to knock the sound out of his throat, free hand gripping his own thigh to have something to hold onto. Bernie looks up at him and Pearl can’t see what he’s doing but he can  _ feel _ it, Bernie’s tongue thrusting into him where he’s slick and hot and so desperate that it might just kill him.

The sight might be what kills him, actually. Bernie’s big puppy dog brown eyes looking up at him like he’s the entire world, his cheeks flushed and his mouth pressed flush against Pearl like he doesn’t want to get even a little bit of space between them. At just the right angle Pearl can see the wetness smeared across his cheeks, probably down his chin too.

He remembers Bernie’s sweet talk from earlier and slips his leg down from the back of the couch, shifting so he can cradle Bernie’s head between his thighs, giving him just a moment’s notice before he squeezes Bernie’s head between them. The way Bernie moans against him, the sound vibrating across his sensitive folds, has him arching off of the couch helplessly. He yanks Bernie’s hair harder than he means to but Bernie just makes another pleased noise and his tongue thrusts in earnest, twisting inside of Pearl.

Pearl keeps Bernie’s head trapped between his thighs and his hand in Bernie’s hair, his thighs shaking the more Bernie’s mouth moves against him. His tongue slips out and over Pearl’s clit, lips wrapping around it to suck and Pearl wails, the pressure and the pleasure all crashing into him at once. Bernie’s tongue is back inside of him a moment later and he squirms, riding it out against Bernie’s face while Bernie makes noises against him like he’s getting off on it, too.

When Pearl slumps down against the couch, Bernie carefully sits up, licking the wetness off of his lips. Not like it matters, Pearl’s come smeared down his chin and over his cheeks too. “Wow,” he says, and it’s kinda cute, how bowled over he looks. “That was amazing.”

Pearl laughs, covers his eyes with an arm. “Amazing? What did you get out of it?”

“Getting to see you get off from  _ my _ mouth on you. It’s a head rush. I, uh, need to change my underwear.” He laughs when Pearl moves his arm, a confused noise leaving his lips, not sure he heard correctly. “S’why I told you not to worry about it. Ryu-san said it was cute, how I’d get off just from eating them out. It feels good, real good, seeing someone just let go like that.”

Pearl doesn’t know what to say to that so he doesn’t say anything at all, covering his eyes with his arm right now, trying to focus on calming his breathing down.

Bernie leaves the couch— Pearl can feel the shift in weight— and then he’s back a few minutes later, something cool and wet pressed between Pearl’s legs. He yelps and sits up, calming only when he realizes Bernie is cleaning him up with a wet washcloth, his face wiped off as well. He’s also stripped down to just boxers and Pearl thinks he must have changed before coming back.

“That was great for me,” Bernie tells him, and Pearl’s face burns. “Was it good for you? I mean, obviously you came but I mean, like, was it good? Did you enjoy it and all?”

Pearl rolls his eyes, wrapping a hand around the back of Bernie’s neck. “‘Course I did, ‘cause it was you. Thanks for taking care of me, babe. It was the best.”

“No problem. I’m glad I could make it good for you. Thanks for trusting me with your body like that, it means a lot to me.” Bernie grins, all teeth, and Pearl isn’t surprised he fell head over heels for this idiot. “Do we get to be official now? I was kind of wanting that, too.”

“You asking me to be your boyfriend after giving me amazing head?” Pearl scoffs, shaking his head.

Bernie tips him a wink and it makes Pearl burn in all the best ways. “Can’t blame me for trying.”

“Yeah, we can be official. You’d be a cute boyfriend to have, for real.” Pearl pulls Bernie closer so he can kiss him properly and his fingers dig in just a little when he realizes he can taste himself on Bernie’s lips, on his tongue.

When Ice and Ryu finally come back from their date, Pearl and Bernie are curled up together on the couch, Bernie trying to show Pearl one of his more concentrated hacking attempts while Pearl just enjoys being closer to him, listening to him talk without understanding a word. Jesse trips in not long after, pitching himself down on the loveseat to take a nap but not before sparing them a long, lingering glance that makes Pearl smirk at him.

If he takes Bernie up to his room with him at the end of the night, so be it.


End file.
